becoming peacemakers
I mentioned Ken Sande's The Peacemaker in yesterday's message, "Abigail: A Woman who Pursued Peace."
Below is just one of the helpful paradigms for thinking about conflict and the varied way's we respond to it.
For more information on understanding this diagram, go to the Peacemaker's website. 
Honestly now, how do you normally respond to conflict? Do you escape or attack or make peace?
3 comments:
Honestly? Never escape, and usually never fall below Arbitration. I probably walk the fine line between accountability and assault, and I may have been known to venture in either direction when mellow or really peeved.
This is one of my favorite passages regarding women.
Abigail is a remarkable woman.
• When there's a problem among Nabal's community they go to who? Abigail. Nabal's character has worn thin upon his own men.
• She is humble woman - she intervenes and asked her husband's sins upon herself!
• She is a woman of action: how quickly she rouses up a peace caravan
• She is a woman in touch with God...she reminds David of his destiny - notice she mentions the slingshot? David is probably a man who is discouraged and lost his vision of what God has in store and is a place for bloodlust, but Abigail's encouragement is like a cold water to shock David's mind: you are going to be a king because God is behind you.
•Abigail lives above her circumstances. Nabal is a fool, and marrying that type of man could cause her to snatch up an opportunity to get rid of him, but she saves him and his men. It's very human to seek refuge from your problems, but Abigail seeks the road of peace.
• Abigail is BOLD. She stands between a fool and a man looking for blood. David is full of wrath, but she stands in his path with humility and quiet strength.
Thanks Tim for doing this!
Great web site. I also liked the blog by the author of Peacemaking Women. Her comment on the idea that God keeps both sides of the covenant was thought provoking.
Loved the web site, but honestly that diagram makes no sense to me at all. After much thought I think the carnal mind works in this area more like a triangle with all of those peacemaking qualities as a precarious point with sharply declining sides. The flight or fight type of thing. Sadly I tend to be in denial until I am really feeling provoked and jump straight over to assault and if that doesn't work then flight. I had a chance to see it in my family of origin recently and I was thinking "No wonder I am such a mess".
On the site I really liked their examples and I have heard some of it before. Letting God sanctify my family through His grace is so much better than me trying to do something to hurry it along (which he call being manipulative - what an ugly thought). Any way I am a bit slow to learn, but fortunately my family is very forgiving and I have discovered that mountains that seem like they will never be moved (by some assault) can be tackled with a humble attitude and a much needed apology. And with miraculous results too.
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